Microsoft has just announced the arrival of a new application integrated into Teams supposed to connect you with your co-workers.
Do you use Microsoft Teams at work to chat with your colleagues? Now you can play with them during your working hours. As rumor had it, Microsoft has just launched Games for Work, a new application for Teams that offers nothing more than to play online with your colleagues. Be careful though, it is not a question here of being distracted, but rather “ build trust, bond and improve team morale explains Microsoft. By introducing games into its collaborative work tool, the Redmond firm hopes to boost your interactions with your co-workers, which, ultimately, would improve your productivity.
Bonding around solitaire and minesweeper
Microsoft didn’t look very far to find the games to integrate into Teams. First of all, these Games for Work were developed in-house by Microsoft Casual Games, an Xbox game studio. Then, the list of games on offer risks reviving some distant memories since it includes, among other things, the essential Solitaire, the famous Minesweeper, or even the word game Wordament. For each of these titles, Microsoft has imagined fast and above all interactive games. They can accommodate from 2 to 250 players simultaneously, enough to strengthen team spirit.
“Games foster creativity, collaboration and communication in powerful and unique ways, and we can’t wait to see how the Games for Work app on Microsoft Teams inspires productivity and helps foster connections in the workplace.. said Jill Braff, general manager of integrations and games at Microsoft.
Teams, a tool that is good for you?
Before the arrival of its Games for Work, Microsoft had already taken other initiatives to make Teams a tool for social connection. The application indeed integrates other applications going in this direction, in particular Polly, a tool allowing to manage questions / answers live or to generate polls. Microsoft’s collaborative messaging made it possible to bring together teams of collaborators thanks to Kahoot, a team game in which challenges are launched. Nevertheless, it remains quite difficult to imagine that Managers can authorize games of Solitaire or Minesweeper during working hours under the pretext of uniting the teams.
Source :
Microsoft